At least Sizemore’s not in there.

So, I was at the Jake Progressive Field yesterday, and I need someone to explain in detail what happened on the play after which Wedge got ejected. They didn’t show a replay in the stadium and I didn’t have a good angle to see what happened. I assumed that Wedge was arguing that his foot wasn’t on the bad? Yes or no?

That would be “wasn’t on the bag,” for clarity.

Jeter made a bad throw to Cano who had to come off the bag to catch it. He sort of flipped the ball into his hand at the same time he was coming off the bag to at least look like he was trying to turn a DP.  The angle that the 2B ump had was horrible.. Cano’s body blocked everything relevant. I’m sure Wedge had a great view of the ball in mid air as his player slid into 2nd. He was understandably pretty pissed off.

Damon: determined to make his contract look good.

He’s kind of on fire, huh?

We could really use a lift from A-Rod here…

OK, not really the lift I was looking for…

Boo! Walks stink!

That was A-Rod’s fault, of course.  His walk pushed Damon into scoring position, thus eliminating the possibility of scoring in this inning.

Cleveland announcers: currently explaining how sac bunt attempts lead to grand slams…

Is Cano’s positioning (in short right field) becoming relatively standard for 2nd-basemen?

And what happened to the CJW who was needed only about 12 pitches to get through the first four innings?

That seemed like a lot of pitches. Not cool.

Now.

LET’S SCORE SOME RUNS!

It’s hard to hate a guy who flies out to the warning track in center field, but, Morgan, please take some pitches. Thanks.

Did Ensberg’s flyout go as far as Gameday insinuated?

Melky’s approach has looked really good this year. Granted, I could just be happy that at least one batter this inning decided to make Sabathia work.

Yes. It went very far.

YM- I don’t think long flyouts go as far as gameday insiunates.

Who woulda thunk it that it would be the Yankees’ offense that makes them so frustrating to watch this season.  Sigh.

YM- Really? At this point I’m more frustrated by the bullpen besides MoJo (just try to stop me from using that expression!) Besides, it’s Sabathia, we’re suppose to suck.

Irv - really?  I’m more frustrated by the consistent failure (thus far) of the young starters.

I don’t know how you couldn’t be frustrated by the offense, even more than the pen. I know it’s gonna come around, but right now they just aren’t hitting with men in scoring position. Nothing is more frustrating than that.

Now the Cleveland commentators are talking about how the bunt foul that Gutierrez was called out on yesterday was a break for the Indians. Weird.

I think we can conclude that the whole team has been frustrating to watch, with the exception of a few specific players (Melky, Rivera, Chamberlain, Abreu, Matsui on offense, Damon lately…).

Rats. Gutierrez ruining CMW’s efficient inning with this pesky at bat.

That was SLAM DUNKIN’ amazing!

Jeter almost made an error. He sucks at the field.

You know what’s frustrating?
Trying to hit Wang!

The pen will be fine when they don’t have to pitch seven innings twice per week.  For me, the 12 hit 3 run games are what’s really excruciating.

IE’s first sentence - thus, see post 22.

Molina hasn’t draw a walk this season.

I’ll add Wang, Molino, Moello, Posado, Pettitte, and the AG to the exception list.

Cano is obviously the big frustrater on offense. Giambi was for a while, but it’s hard to get on his case at the moment. A-Rod hasn’t been bad, but he also hasn’t been A-Rod, which is frustrating if unfair. It’s not really mostly the individual performances though. It’s that they don’t ever seem to put them together.

Waldman believes everyone is a good fielder.  Giambi is a good fielder.  Soriano is a good fielder.

IE- But the offense will be fine too, at some point.

dakranker- he’s the 2nd-string catcher, everything he does is a bonus.

OK, the ideal situation.  Runner on, but not in scoring position, and the middle of the line-up coming to the plate.

Waldman is simply comparing their skills to hers. And since they are better than her, they are good.

I used to be in the Giambi is OK camp, but he’s not. He genuinely seems to be afraid of the ball. He never seems to get it on a good hop or get his body in front of it. His instincts are crap. Where the hell was he going yesterday on that bunt? Bizarre. He can’t throw at all. He’s not bad scooping the ball (though apparently not as good as Shelly).

Jeter: robbed. Frustrating.

At what point does failure with men in scoring position become statistically impossible?  I believe that they’re approaching [(one over infinity) times the square root of negative one].

Jeter tried to hit in to a DP but Damon made a good slide to avoid the tag at second.

The captain and Posada and entering their decline, but they are true yankees so they will wear pinstripes till they want to retire.

Of course the offense will be fine.  Actually, if the Yanks can split these next two games, I’ll be satisfied.  After all, Hughes and Kennedy are due to improve and Cano ought to begin hitting soon.  I’d just like the Yanks to avoid an 8 games under .500 hole 50 games into the season a la 2007.

dak, it’s tough to use one tenth of this season with a shoulder problem as evidence of a decline in the Possessor of Prowess after his performance last season.

dakranker- I guess Posada is entering his decline since he probably will never have a year like he had last year… but that’s still a ridiculous statement.

By the way, a writer at the Post yesterday called out Sterling for his persistent “It is high, it is far, it is caught” shenanigans.  He also deemed him the worst announcer in sports - although he surely has never had the pleasure of seeing Hawk Harrelson in action.

Posada doesn’t show any signs of decline in terms of hitting.  As for catching, he was never a gold glover.  One of his great assets was always being healthy, which, for the time being, is not the case but it’s too early to worry.

.500 season means that the Yankees will win 70 more games, right?  I guess I can look forward to that.

Posada is in his decline because he is old and he plays catcher. He has been injured all the season and is the first time he’s been in jured in his career. All make sense that his age doesn’t help him to mantain his production behind the plate.

I hope Girardi is willing to use Mariano for two innings if the Yanks get a lead.  The guy hasn’t pitched in three days.

What you’re stating is why he SHOULD be in his decline, not that he is ACTUALLY in his decline besides being injured. Which wasn’t that big. So yeah, wait before you say stuff like that.

Posada is in his decline because he is old and he plays catcher.

Carlton Fisk says “Hi.”

Seriously, the rules aren’t that cut and dry. Let’s wait until Jorge actually declines before we start saying that he’s declining.

Can we not talk about Girardi and how he uses Rivera yet? I’m still steaming about yesterday.

Dakranker seems rather gloomy.  I’m not sure he’s open to reason.

Warm chocolate pudding makes everything better.  Truly.

TBS didn’t even show what happened to the ball - Shelley’s running towards first and who knows what’s happening with things like, oh, the ball, fielding, etc.
Amateur.

What announcers does anyone here really like?

WP- The Replacement Level Yankees liveblogging

I like the Red Sox crew and the Mets.

And Vin Scully, obv.

Oh, the Cubs guys.

What does Pudge do offesnivly?

*offensively

Wang- strikeout machine

Good announcers:

I generally like Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, which I know puts me in the minority. I’m struggling to think of anyone else. Oh, I enjoyed Bob Costas too. I’m not sure there’s anyone on Fox that I really like.

Growing up in the Detroit area, I always enjoyed George Kell and Al Kaline, though they aren’t announcing anymore. And, of course, I got to listen to the incomparable Ernie Harwell.

And, WTF? The Cleveland guy just referred to a Yankee pitcher named “Farnshorst.” WTF?

Wang is quietly becoming a strikeout hitter.  I’ll bet he notches around 140 this year.

...um, strikeout pitcher

Wang is quietly becoming a strikeout hitter.

I hope not. We have plenty of these already, it seems.

IE- He would also probably be a strikeout hitter

I liked Charlie Steiner.

I liked Charlie Steiner.

Yeah, I second this.

What’s with the music TBS is playing?

Hey IE, thought you might be interested, I ran a 1:55 yesterday in my conference finals.

The offense is pretty brutal, the worst thing is that we keep getting glimpses of what it should be and then they back to being dominated by marginal pitchers. Not that Sabathia is one.

How many times has Wang struck out the side?

Wang’s secondary stuff has been nasty today.

Wang. That was awesome.

CH - no, he hasn’t been good enough this year to be called “marginal.”

Nice job, Clay.  In my high school, we had a 4x800 relay team and every guy was able to run below 2:00.  Alas, I was not one of those four.

I’ll take it!

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Asdrubal Cabrera is good.

Thanks, I stayed as far away from the 800 in HS as I could, My coach had my run one workout to try it out and I gave up half way through. Then of course, in college I volunteered to run one and ran a 2:00 off of 400 training, So I got bumped up into the absurd pain that is the 8.

Melky is a HR machine.

The Melkman delivers.
He just has it in for Cleveland pitchers when they’re dominating.

Is Bowa Svengali to Cano’s Trilby or why else does he suck so much

Melky is a beast!

YES!  Thank God there was no one in scoring position or that would have been caught at the wall.

And to think, we could have gotten THE Eric Gagne for that kid.

Goddammit, Robby! Thanks, Melky!

The 800 and the 400 intermediate hurdles are the most difficult events in track, in my opinion.

So, should we be pissed that Cano got picked off right before the homer, or pleased because that allowed Melky to hit the homer because no one was on base, as per normal for the yankees?

Cashman talked to Melky this winter and told him to look good. Melky clearly took it to heart.

er… to make him look good.

DaPuj- I always feel you can’t assume something will happen the same way if something before that changes.

Melky isn’t just hitting his HRs off creampuffs a la Giambi.  He’s gone deep on Papelbon, Sabathia and Halladay (although that one was rather a cheapie).

DaPuj, they COULD score with a man on first.  The line is somewhere between 1st and second.

IE- I don’t think home runs count more if you get them off the cream of the crop instead of the creampuffs.

I’m not tall enough to run the intermediates/my hips won’t let me. Personally I’m not a big fan of the longer races, I think too much and I don’t like being able to hear individual people.

As for Cano, he hadn’t seen 1B in so long he wasn’t quite sure what to do once he got there.  And I repeat, if the score is 1-0 after seven and Wang is gassed, Mariano needs to enter this game.

I’m not saying they do, Irv - just that Melky is showing he can hit any type of pitcher, which is nice.

irv - I think IE’s saying that it should bode well for the future. Melky’s not just fattening up on the dreck in the league.

And I repeat, if the score is 1-0 after seven and Wang is gassed, Mariano needs to enter this game.

Prefer to cross bridges when I come to them.

But, yes.